DEFORESTATION AROUND THE WORLD - India Environment Portal

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Deforestation Around the World
land use changes in Greece. Based on the information of the Fig. 1, it is possible put forward
some comments concerning land use change in Greece:
High deforestation constitutes a significant process of land use change in several insular
as well as mountainous regions of the country (Minetos and Polyzos 2010). A limited
number of mainland coastal regions as well as some regions adjacent to large
metropolitan areas, present high deforestation rates. Examining the information on the
maps, it is obvious that deforestation, very often, coexists with the urban sprawl and
illegal housing activity. Beyond the obvious impacts on the biodiversity of these
regions, there also emerge several questions concerning erosion processes, flooding and
loss of ground via rain water washings. Taking into account that edaphogenic processes
follow the geological time scale, such changes should be considered as being
irreversible. At the same time, the cost of protecting human activities from flooding
events increases, the available fresh water resources lower and microclimate and living
conditions at the local level change. In the long term, reduction of biodiversity is
expected to affect negatively development opportunities and to also influence the
regional level of prosperity (Minetos and Polyzos 2010). Finally, it is worth mentioning
that deforestation processes at numerous localities accumulate affecting wider areas at
the regional scale and also fuelling global environmental issues such as global warming
and climate change.
Increased conversion and modification of agricultural land present high rates in the
case of regions with large urban concentrations, in regions adjacent to the
aforementioned ones as well as in several insular regions (Minetos and Polyzos 2009).
Processes that contribute to the configuration of this pattern are: (a) Urbanisation of
agricultural land and, (b) abandonment of marginal agricultural land. Therefore, in a
great number of the aforementioned regions, the loss of agricultural land is connected
to pressures deriving from urban sprawl and illegal housing activity (Minetos and
Polyzos 2009). In the rest of the regions, loss of agricultural land is connected to the low
competitiveness of agricultural sector and the problematic environmental and
demographic characteristics within which agricultural activity takes place.
It is apparent that economic forces such as land-rent, lead to structural changes to the
economic base of regional areas in question (Polyzos 2009). However, if we take into
consideration the way in which this economic transformation (illegal housing, urban
sprawl) is happening, then it is likely that several negative economic, social and
environmental impacts will emerge having long lasting action. More specifically, the
shrinkage of the economic base of the regional spatial units and, in certain cases, the
observed orientation of local economic base to a single activity generates phenomena of
"monoculture" (e.g. tourism) in the economy.
Urban sprawl, concerns most regions of the country but it presents particular intensity in the
western and southern areas as well as in most of the islands. High sprawl of urban activities
in ex-urban location is observed in also relatively remote areas (Polyzos and Minetos 2009).
They are also frequent commercial linear developments following the major interregional
transportation routes as well as extensive low density areas of urban forms (residential
units, tourism infrastructure, etc). A development pattern like this needs to be supported by
a large amount of infrastructure (road axes, networks of water supply, networks and
installations of waste water treatment) the size of which might be disproportionate to the
size of served population.